Pals Rally Round Rostenkowski

Lobbyists, Politicos Pay To Schmooze With Candidate

March 02, 1994|By Steve Daley, Tribune Staff Writer.

WASHINGTON — A day after he squired President Clinton around Chicago's Northwest Side, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski resumed his Capitol Hill mode Tuesday, holding court in a hotel ballroom crowded with friendly lobbyists and sympathetic politicos at a $500-a-ticket campaign fundraiser.

Facing a March 15 Democratic primary fight and a continuing grand jury investigation into his office accounts, the embattled chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee served notice that his talents in attracting the Federal City's army of influence brokers and corporate door-openers were undiminished.

The fundraiser was closed to the media and picketed by a bewhiskered "fat cat"-a man in a black cat suit-representing a congressional-reform lobby.

The event drew an "A list" of Democratic politicians.

House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-Wash.) and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen joined more than two dozen Democratic members of Congress, including a host of committee chairmen, in boosting Rostenkowski's primary hopes.

William Gradison, a former Republican House member now representing the Health Insurance Association of America, sponsor of the "Harry and Louise" TV ads attacking the Clinton health plan, paid his respects. So did Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood, a Republican who worked with Rostenkowski during the 1986 tax-reform debate.

Packwood is enduring his own legal wrangle over allegations of sexual harassment, and his presence turned the heads of even the most jaded Washington insiders.

"An old friend, Dan's an old friend," Packwood muttered as he swept past a pair of reporters.

Lawyer William Daley, brother of Chicago's mayor, was on hand, as was former Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan and former Illinois state Sen. William Marovitz.

Former Democratic Rep. Marty Russo of Illinois, now a lobbyist in Chicago for a Washington-based firm, was in attendance, as was all-purpose Washington lobbyist Tommy Boggs, son of the late House Majority Leader Hale Boggs (D-La.) and lawyer in the influential firm of Patton, Boggs and Blow.

"It felt like a lot of people turned out to let the chairman know they were behind him," said health-care lobbyist Anita Epstein, who along with several others estimated the crowd at about 250.

Others on hand for the shrimp and schmoozing were less deferential, though all sought anonymity.

"Most people think this whole scandal thing is crazy," said a Democratic lawyer who does lobbying work for several large insurance companies. "Still, whatever happens, you have to be in the game. Everybody wants a piece of health care, and right now Danny's got the biggest piece."

Indeed, judging from the turnout, few in this cross-section of Washington's power elite were put off by the two-year federal investigation into allegations that the Chicago Democrat misused congressional and campaign funds.

In recent months, Rostenkowski has spent nearly $750,000 in campaign funds to pay his legal bills, as well as those of aides.

Despite the legal expenses, the latest Federal Election Committee reports indicate that Rostenkowski has nearly $1.2 million in campaign cash on hand.

All that cash splashing around drew an appearance by Fat Cat, sent by Public Citizen, a liberal campaign-finance reform advocacy group.

A spokeswoman for Public Citizen said the protest was aimed at the influence of special-interest money on the political process. And while Rostenkowski avoided the media, he acknowledged Fat Cat's presence by issuing a statement that read in part:

"Once again we have proof that Public Citizen is more interested in the cheap theatrics of animal acts than in the heavy lifting of legislative compromise."

Fat Cat handed out literature in front of the hotel, citing FEC reports that showed Rostenkowski has received more than $500,000 in donations from political action committees sponsored by health insurance and medical lobbies.

Rostenkowski's staff distributed copies of a Jan. 19 speech in which he criticized the insurance association's TV ad campaign.